Athens, National Archaeological Museum

Q637187

That was not very clever: visiting the National Archaeological Museum on the last day of a two week trip through northern and central Greece. Of course, it was a nice summary of everything we’ve seen, but I think it would have been better to start over here. Ever a teacher, I might have used the museum’s splendid collection of sculpture to explain to my companions the development of Greek art.

That’s what you’ll find on the first floor: lots of sculpture in a series of rooms surrounding a large hall, which is devoted to Mycenaean art. There, you will find the golden objects from Mycenae that Schliemann found. The sculpture rooms surround it. Your tour starts with some kouroi and you can easily follow the growth to greater accuracy in representing the human body. When you’ve finished about a third of your tour, the Greek sculptors have mastered every aspect of anatomy, and you will pass along many classical sculptures, including two dazzling copies of the Diadumenus and the Cnidian Aphrodite. After that, more sculpture: the fourth century, Hellenism, and finally the Roman age.

On the ground floor, there’s also a series of rooms that contain metal art. Here, you will see the Anticythera Mechanism, but also collections of arrowheads from Marathon and Thermopylae. The Egyptian part – also on the ground floor – is a bit odd in a museum dedicated to Greek art, but the collection is too small to be exposed in a museum of its own and too important to keep stored away. In the Hellenistic part of the Egyptian collection, I noticed a statue of Hephaestion that I had never seen before.

Upstairs, you will find a marvelous collection of pottery and some objects that don’t fit anywhere else, like the Lemnian inscription, written in a language related to Etruscan. Next to it is a section dedicated to the investigations at Santorini, where some splendid frescoes have been found.

Do not forget to visit the basement. There’s a little café with a garden, where you will see some of the sculptures found in the Anticythera wreck. They have a certain beauty because they are partly eroded. I found the giant Heracles absolutely fascinating.

This museum was visited in 1989, 1992, 2004, 2007, 2010.

76 pictures related to this museum

Eucratides II of Bactria	Larisa, Tombstone of a man with a hat	Artemisium, Statue of Zeus	Piraeus, Funerary stela of Damasistrate
Aegina, Ptolemy VI Philometor	Megara, Statue of a Roman emperor (Trajan or Hadrian)	Marathon, Arrowheads	Piraeus, Votive stela of a reclining Dionysus
Smyrna, Portrait of Caligula, reworked to resemble Titus	Chalcis-Vromousa, Head of a woman (Roman copy of a Greek original)	Thebes, Tombstone	Mycene, House of the Warrior Krater, Warrior Krater
Eretria, Gymnasium, Statue of Cleonicus	Athens, Temple of Zeus, Portrait of Polemo of Laodicea	The fight for the body of Patroclus.	Mycene, Wall painting of a griffin with a warrior
Piraeus, Theater, Head of Dionysus (classicizing)	Gomphoi, Relief of Odysseus and Amphicleia	Corinth, Relief of a hoplite	Akrotiri, Building B, Room B1, Wall painting of antelopes
Athens, Kerameikos, Base of the statue of a wrestler	Piraeus, Julian the Apostate	Piraeus, Statue of a woman or Demeter	Megiste, Bellerophon sarcophagus.
Argos, Relief of the Doryphorus of Polykleitos	Thebes (?), Block statue of Prince Horwedja, governor and high priest in Heliopolis	Corinth, Plate with Demeter	Zeus and Ganymedes
Lemnos, Tombstone of an Etruscan (?) warrior	Lycian portrait of Omphale	Pharsalus, Krater with a four-horse chariot	Athens, Kerameikos, Alexander with a Lion's Pelt
Argos, Heraion, Amazonomachy	Dodona, Figurine of Zeus Keraunos	Athens, Agora, Late Geometric pyxis	Athens, Kerameikos, Skull of Myrthis
Sparta, Statue of Julia Aquilia Severa, damaged after her death	Oropos, Aeolian-Ionic capital	Athens, Statue of a Minotaur	Hellenistic ruler
Piraeus, Funerary stela with ball players	Sais, Temple of Neith, Statuette	Olympia, Head of the boxer Satyros	Megara, Statue of Dionysus
Athens, Stoa of Attalus, Attalus II Philadelphus	Nysa, Bouleuterion, "Little Refugee"	Lead figurine of Athena	Akrotiri, Building B, Room B1, Wall painting of boxers
Aegina, Tombstone of a young man, holding a bird	Argos, Theater, Statue of Aphrodite	Athens, Kerameikos, Siren	Melos, Statue of Poseidon
Argos, Heraion, Sima	Argos, Heraion, West pediment, Head of Hera	Epidauros, Temple of Artemis, Nike	Lebadeia, Relief of Trophonius
Aegina, Temple of Apollo, Statue of a wounded warrior	Eleusis, Relief of Demeter, Triptolemus, and Kore	Thebes, Head of Artemis	Mycene, Dagger with lion hunt
Eleusis, Temple F, Cecrops and Herse	Athens, Varvakeion Athena	Athens, Pnyx, Lenormant Athena	Eretria, Lekythos (Bosanquet Painter)
Eleusis, Tombstone of a warrior	Thermopylae, Arrowheads	Piraeus, Head of a bearded god	Larisa, Tombstone of Polyxena
Mycene, Boar's tusk helmet	Eleusis, Relief of a drunk Heracles	Alexandria, Hephaestion (part of a group with Alexander)	Alexandria, Alexander the Great (part of a group with Hephaestion)
Athens, Kerameikos, Dipylon krater	Decree of Tefnakht	Mycene, Wall painting ("La Parisienne")	Argos, Heraion, West pediment, Palladion